Ship Types
There are six main types of ships in Sins of a Solar Empire. Strike Craft are the smallest ships and must be carried into battle by larger ships. Frigates are the most common ships that fulfill a variety of functions from scouting to colonization. Cruisers are larger than frigates and perform more specific roles such as carrying strike craft, supporting fleet operations, or direct heavy assault. Capital Ships were the largest and most powerful ships, until the addition of Titans, but are very expensive; they can be upgraded in level with a maximum level of 10, making them superior to all vessels within their respective fleet. In the Entrenchment micro-expansion, Starbases are the largest and most powerful military structures, but are extremely expensive, while Anti-Structure Cruisers provide the firepower to counter Starbases, and Mines change the shape of the battlefield. In the Diplomacy micro-expansion, Envoy Cruisers expanded the diplomacy aspect. Each of the three factions possesses a unique set of ships, but they all fulfill the same general roles, however, unique ships appear in the two micro-expansions. In the Rebellion stand-alone expansion, Titans have become the largest and most powerful ships, dwarfing any known ship, and Corvettes bridge the gap between Strike Craft and Frigates. The three factions have fractured into Loyalist and Rebel camps, that have their own variants of the Titans and Corvettes. Each core faction also gained a new capital ship. This page describes which types of ship are effective against which other types, but for a quick overview, see Counters. Strike Craft Strike Craft are very small vessels carried into battle by larger ships or deployed from planetary defense hangars, with no ability to Phase Jump between planets on their own. They are free to build, very fast, and cannot be targeted by most ships. The two types of strike craft are Fighters and Bombers. Corvettes Corvettes are small cheap multi-purpose vessels that are produced en masse. They are the smallest and fastest ships capable of Phase Jumping under their own power. They have a special passive ability to debuff enemy ships, and can serve as a core fleet combat unit, though they are inferior to Light Frigates in a head-on fight. They directly counter Long Range Frigates and Titans (when massed), and are most strongly countered by Anti-StrikeCraft Frigates. Due to their mobility and speed they can also function as a pseudo scout. Corvettes are built at Frigate Factories. *'TEC Loyalist': Shriken Corvette *'TEC Rebel': Stilat Corvette *'Advent Loyalist': Acolyte Corvette *'Advent Rebel': Vespa Corvette *'Vasari Loyalist': Tosurak Corvette *'Vasari Rebel': Sulsurak Corvette Frigates Frigates are the small, cheap workhorses of every fleet. A well-balanced armada is likely to be numerically dominated by specialized frigates, which may be used as scouts, skirmishers, colonization ships, and anti-fighter escorts. Frigates are built at Frigate Factories. There are six different types of frigates. Cruisers Cruisers are larger than frigates, but not nearly as large as capital ships. They're also generally more expensive. While some cruisers are designed strictly for combat, others may carry fighter and bomber squadrons into battle or provide fleet support capabilities through indirect abilities. Cruisers are built at Frigate Factories (once their design has been researched). There are four types of cruisers. Two additional types of cruisers were added in Entrenchment. An additional type of cruiser was added in Diplomacy. Capital Ships Capital Ships are the largest, most expensive ships you can build. All capital ships are well armed and well shielded, able to effectively fight smaller ships and if micromanaged properly or they are at a high enough level other Capital Ships, even when outnumbered. Capital Ships also possess the ability to bombard enemy colonies, much like Siege Frigates. Although versatile and powerful, most capital ships will be defeated by overwhelming numbers of smaller units, so it's usually a bad idea send them into battle alone without a supporting fleet. However fully upgraded Capital Ships even alone possess a significant threat to smaller ships and other Capital Ships. Capital Ships are the only ships that gain experience and level up, until the addition of Titans in Rebellion, gaining new abilities and becoming substantially more powerful in the process. Capital Ships also gain the ability to host additional squadrons of fighters and bombers as they level up. All Capital Ships reach their pinnacle experience at level 10. Capital Ships are built at Capital Ship Factories. There are five different types of capital ships. Titans Titans are a new type of ship added in the stand-alone expansion pack Rebellion. These leviathans dwarf even Capital Ships, and have massive arsenals of weaponry and active abilities capable of destroying fleets of frigates on their own. Each faction has a unique Titan with different strengths and weaknesses. Titans have an exceptionally elaborate process of research and infrastructure acquisition required in order to be built, and are extremely expensive, but like Capital Ships they will gain experience over time and become increasingly powerful the longer they fight. Only 1 Titan can be built by each player at any time. If destroyed, Titans can be re-built at great cost, but unlike Capital Ships, will maintain any experience they have already accrued. *'TEC Loyalist': Ankylon Titan *'TEC Rebel': Ragnarov Titan *'Advent Loyalist': Coronata Titan *'Advent Rebel': Eradica Titan *'Vasari Loyalist': Vorastra Titan *'Vasari Rebel': Kultorask Titan Other Ships Starbases A Starbase is a unit type added in Entrenchment. The base cost of a Starbase is comparable to that of a Capital Ship. To build a starbase, you need a special cruiser, whose sole purpose is to build a starbase. The exception to this are the Vasari, who use the Jarun Migrator instead to build a starbase. The cruiser/colony ship is lost permanently when the starbase finishes building or is destroyed before it is built. You can build a starbase at any planet, however, you can only have one per planet, and only four per star. The exceptions to this are for TEC Loyalists in Rebellion, who can research Twin Fortresses, which allows them to have two starbases at planets, and five at stars. Unlike ships, a starbase does not require Fleet Supply. The construction cruiser/colony ship does take up supply, but it will be returned once the construction finishes or is interrupted by destruction. Starbases have 8 module slots, which can be filled in whatever way the user sees fit. Each module has a resource cost and many have some research that has to be done first before you can build them. Like capital ships, a starbase has a name and the name can be changed. *'TEC': Argonev Star Base *'Advent': Transcencia Star Base *'Vasari': Orkulus Star Base Development There have been numerous changes to the ships during the patches. For simplicity's sake, the ones that apply to all of them are listed here. Patch 1.02: *All Siege Frigates (i.e., Krosov Siege Frigates, Purge Vessels, and Karrastra Destructors) have had their survivability decreased. Patch 1.03: *All Siege Frigates have had their survivability further reduced by 20%. In addition, they have become 25% more costly to build, and now require 15 supply as opposed to 12. *The autocasting of many ship-disabling abilities was improved. *Ships can no longer attack unbuilt structures. *All Long-Range Frigates (i.e., Javelis LRM Frigates, Illuminator Vessels, and Kanrak Assailants) have had their Credit costs increased 10%, their resource costs increased 20%, and their range increased by 30%. Additionally, Illuminators and Assailants were tweaked so their survivability was proportional to the Javelis' on a per-supply basis. Patch 1.04: *The previous Siege frigate build cost has been reduced by 15%. All other changes from 1.03 remain as they are. *All "Mothership"-type Capital Ships (i.e., Akkan Battlecruisers, Progenitor Motherships, and Jarrasul Evacuators) have had their speed increased from 400 to 475. All other Capital ships have had their speed increased from 500 to 525. *All Long-Range Frigates have had their acceleration reduced from 200 to 150, their max speed reduced from 800 to 500, and their ranges decreased from 130% to 115% (in relation to Patch 1.02). *The Anti-Very Light attack (used by Anti-Strike Craft Frigates) chance to hit Bombers has been reduced from 85% to 75%. In addition, the damage dealt to ships with "Light" armor has been reduced from 100% to 75%. *All Carriers (i.e., Percheron Light Carriers, Aeria Drone Hosts, and Lasurak Transporters) have had their costs reduced slightly. *Strike Craft had an issue of being able to launch when they should've been grounded. This was fixed in this patch. Patch 1.1: So many it had to be split into two sections so you could read a bit easier. Ships and Strike Craft *All Frigates and Cruisers now spawn with full antimatter pools. *All ships that deal Anti-Light damage (Scout Frigates, Colony Frigates, and Fighters) have had their damage against Capital Ship, Medium, Heavy and Very-Heavy armor types increased from 25% to 50%. *All Carrier Cruisers have been tweaked to have 2-3 squadrons; additionally, they are relatively less expensive per squadron. *All ships that deal Anti-Very Light damage (Anti-Strike Craft Frigates) have had their damage against Capital Ship, Medium, Heavy and Very-Heavy armor types increased from 25% to 50%. *All ships that deal "Composite" damage (Heavy Combat Cruisers) have had their damage to Medium armor increased from 100% to 125%. Their damage against Heavy armor has also decreased from 125% to 100%. *All ships that deal Anti-Heavy damage (Light Frigates, Siege Frigates, and Offensive and Defensive Support Cruisers) have had their damage against Heavy armor increased from 125% to 150%. *There was a bug that sometimes made Capital Ships unable to get squadrons. This was fixed in the patch. *All ships that own squadrons (Capitals and Carrier Cruisers) will now attempt to build strike craft in all non-full squadrons, rather than just one squadron per type it supports. This addresses the situation where squadron owners having all squadrons of the same type were losing "production efficiency" as opposed to those having both fighter and bomber squadrons. This should also improve construction for squad owners w/2+ squads (i.e., most high-level Capital Ships). *Players encountered a bug where they could see the weapon ranges of ships not yet detected. This was fixed in the patch. *Players also discovered an exploit where they could build too many squadrons. This was also fixed in the patch. *All Strike Craft now require 20% less antimatter for construction than they did previously, but also take about 10% longer to build for balance. They also offer 33% less experience to Capitals when destroyed, and will dock or stay docked when they're not supposed to be launched. *All Anti-Strike Craft frigates have had their DPS reduced by 25% (in relation to Patch 1.05). Additionally, their attack range has been increased slightly from 3000 to 3250. *There was a glitch where ships in fleets would attempt to return to their rally points at particularly bad times. This was fixed in the patch. Abilities *Abilities may now require resources to use instead of antimatter. *Buffs will be removed from targets if ownership changes hands. *Targeted channeling abilities that should stop when their target's ownership becomes friendly, neutral or hostile relative to the channeler's will now stop if it is appropriate to do so. *More cases were found where buffs should perform their OnBuffFinish actions (fixes weirdness with various abilities). In response, duplicate buffs that get replaced by new instances of the same buff now do their OnBuffFinish actions when this happens. This should significantly improve Malice's damage output when multiple Progenitors are chain casting it on the same targets, as well as numerous other abilities. Patch 1.15: *All ships taken over by the Rapture Battlecruiser's Domination will properly leave the fleets they are in and join the Rapture's if the Capital Ship is part of one. *All ships that have abilities that repair damage and/or restore shields within an area around the ship will now only consider ships within that radius - they will no longer go out of their way to repair/restore ANY friendly ship, regardless of distance. Category:Ships